The Monarch

The Monarch

Beautiful and clever

The Monarch flashes its LEDs when its antennae touch. But it's also clever! It uses a clock source and shift register in a particular configuration in order to generate its patterns. Through it, one can learn about the basics of digital design, clocking, and randomness.

It is a third in a series of electronic 'bugs', the first is The Lady and the second is The Gent.

Follow the infographic paying attention to the following information: the wire in the kit might be a bit short so use resistor leg cutting, the gap between the socket and PCB, and the recommended floating XOR input fix.

Further information

The Monarch is an open source design, as is most of our work. You can find the design files for the hardware and packaging at our GitHub repository. You can edit the design files using our own PCB design open source software, PCBmodE.

This project was a collaboration with Eurocircuits who manufactured these wonderful PCBs!

The Monarch was Project #18 of the Boldport Club. If you'd like to purchase a kit, become a member and add one to your order through the shop.

Finally, community contributions for this project are on our community site.